


A Lesson In Trust

by DokiDio



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bottom Uchiha Sasuke, Im tired, M/M, Protective Hatake Kakashi, Top Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke Needs a Hug, what is this, why did i do this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:01:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26255341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DokiDio/pseuds/DokiDio
Summary: Where Sasuke returns to Kakashi over and over throughout his difficult journey he deems necessary.  Kakashi offers him a hand and understanding at first, he didn’t mean for it to turn into pining and affection.Or where Kakashi gets used to having Sasuke in his apartment so much that he can’t live without him.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 31
Kudos: 124





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhhh my mind is a strange place—I’ve been thinking about this for a while and now it’s in writing.

It was the middle of the night when someone’s poorly hidden chakra signature awoke the pale haired ninja. He catches a glimpse of his alarm clock as he slips into motion with his good eye—3:32 am—rising from his bed to his feet in one fluid motion. He keeps it quiet, smooth, already on alert as he makes his way to the front door. Each step is quieted by the rain falling just outside, he doesn’t have to work that hard at stealth in storms like this. Climbing down the stairs he feels the familiar chakra make move behind the entrance to his home. It wades back and forth at his apartment door, unsure and uneasy. Where had he felt that energy before? He blames his inability to call such a strong chakra on his slightly groggy state of mind. His body was being brought forward on fight or flight reflexes, his emotions and rational thinking were a step behind his instincts. He parsed through his memory with his fingers rolling the kunai in his palm. His heartbeat thunders in his ears as he approaches one step at a time, his mind working out who’s chakra it is exactly far too slow, he might as well just go and look.

He takes a peek through the peep-hole in the front door, his breath catches despite himself at the image that is presented to him. Pulling back he takes his time gathering himself, the kunai tightens against his bare fingers, suddenly unsure and pensive. He prepares himself for what opening this door could mean, not daring to back out to the whims of sleep with such a presence roaming outside his door. The figure outside stills, the chakra is still ragged, and rough but the pacing back and forth is gone from the signature.

His hand grips the brass colored handle with a silent reserve to see this through to the bitter end.

Yanking the door open, the thundering sound of the heavy rain floods his ear but he can’t hear it, it’s all white noise except for the face across him. He’d made an instinctual jab with the kunai in his hand toward the other, it stopped at Sasuke’s throat, the metal pressing uneasily at the skin there. Dark eyes spin with a tint of red before cooling into a confident brown so dark his pupil is hidden in its depth. They’re hyper focused on Kakashi’s face, ignoring the sudden movement of the intruding arm as if Sasuke knew that the strike wouldn’t hit. 

There’s a pause of just watching. Watching Sasuke’s ragged uneven breath. Watching the furrow of a brow deepen in pain. Watching a pale hand colored red with blood twitch closer to an open wound protectively.

Suddenly, Kakashi can hear again, the rush of rain makes him blink, his eyes caught on Sasuke’s once he finds them again. There’s no pride in the Uchiha as he looks, no point Kakashi assumes, the scuffed up drenched clothing, split lips, various bruises and excessive bleeding—Sasuke is in no position to boast, to raise his chin in indignation. There’s even fear in dark pupils if he squints, and even more surprising is the look of pleading. Sasuke’s begging with his eyes, any more—like say he raised his voice, and spoke into the atmosphere his obvious need—he’d probably break in half from the sheer amount anger at having to feel so weak, to have to stoop so low, he’d probably sooner kill Kakashi than beg verbally.

Kakashi strangely is having a similar issue, he can’t find his voice to answer the plea even if it was given to him. He steps to the side in a silent acceptance, that is after shakily lowering the kunai pressed to his former student’s throat. 

Slowly, on weak limbs, Sasuke limps past the doorway that is now open of him. He waits in the open living room that gives way to the stairs behind him and a kitchen to the right. That’s where Kakashi finds him when he finally processes the reality of Sasuke being here in his apartment just a few steps away. The sight when he turns his back to the front door, puddles of water left in the Uchiha’s wake, and the Uchiha himself is a still figure in practically translucent white dressings. Different from when he’d last seen him, still sporting Orochimaru’s mark and that strange purple roping about his waist. 

As if on cue, Sasuke pulls his small knife from somewhere on his person. He viciously starts sawing at the rope around his abdomen, he makes short work of it and it slaps against the hard floor in a wet heap. Sasuke heaves a deep breath that seems too labor intensive for the simple action before his knees give out during a sudden coughing fit. Kakashi makes his way to the other, slow to keep from surprising the younger; he sinks to one knee beside the other. The raven haired man—no longer a boy on his team, a damn there full grown man— doesn’t react to the closeness, he seems too focused on breathing and gathering himself. Finding his hand on the raven’s back, Sasuke unfolds from atop himself to look at him. 

“This is gonna suck, but don’t kill me.”

He peels the soaked white material that used to act and behave like clothing, off of the young man’s body, gentle as it rolls away from the jarring gash in the Uchiha’s side. Kakashi presses the pads of his fingers into the skin over his ribs. He eyes the flinch as the rush of breath escapes the other in a hiss, he thumbs the bruising over his side with even more care to not elicit pain. A broken rib, probably why his breathing was thrown off, or maybe just a bruised one. Kakashi’s medical knowledge was experience based, a broken rib hurt about as bad as a real fucking bruised one to him. Looking at the sheer amount of bruises on top of scars on pale skin, he’s reminded of himself, his own experiences that had left him this wounded. His eye shifted up to the younger's face. Dark eyebrows have long since pinched together, the skin in between scrunches up, the kid’s in serious pain to be showing it. Again not kid— how long had it been, the person before him was at least 20, maybe younger maybe older. Damn he’s lost track of time. If he asks Naruto how old he is then… 

Irises the color of coal are on him again, it’s then that he’d realized he’d been sitting and reminiscing, if you could call it that, for a good minute. Long enough for Sasuke to notice, and his face to resume that emotionless expression. He’s kicked into action by the subtle tensing of muscle underneath his finger tips, the copy nin is up and moving toward the bathroom when his mind finally catches up. 

While sifting through his cabinet for the medkit he’d stuffed in the guest bathroom—a medkit he really hasn’t seen since the time he’d first moved in, he hears a thump. Kakashi slips past the corner of the doorway into the living room, and watches Sasuke try to raise himself onto his feet. Black hair falls over his ears as his head points downward, it’s a moment more of watching until comprehension dawns on Kakashi. The kid’s making an attempt to follow him into the small guest bathroom, he’d smirk if the situation weren’t so tense.

“Easy, easy. I’ll come to you.”

He announces and the shuffling stills. Crouching in front of his former student, he starts opening the medkit. Sasuke’s already practically undressed, white soaked top is pooling at his sides, so on to step two.

“What the hell happened to you?”

Kakashi pulls in close, circling his arms around the other’s pale waist as he bandages the very ugly wound. The action shouldn’t be sexual as it is and he curses the Icha-Icha books for his dirty mind. 

“...Orochi...mmm….”

Sasuke’s free hand reaches up and grasps the cloth over Kakashi’s shoulder, he tenses at the bandage growing tightening about his middle. His voice cutting off into a gentle groan at the painful sensation. The other hand holds the thick white pad directly over the wound as Kakashi works to secure under the bandages. Kakashi pauses, surprised to receive an answer,

“My bad..” 

He apologizes, realizes he’d hit a tender spot in conversation and physically. As he loops the bandage around he pulls back looking Sasuke in the face as he does, they’re nose to nose when Sasuke turns to face him. Something passes through those dark eyes, Kakashi gets caught trying to analyze the emotion crossing the man’s face, he doesn’t recognize his hands have stopped moving again. 

Sasuke sighs out when Kakashi’s pushing forward again, tightening the bandage as he goes around once more. They’re faces inch closer again, and at the slight pain of the pressure against the wound, Sasuke shuts his eyes while he tilts his forehead forward until it’s resting against Kakashi’s.

The copy nin pauses again, his eye roaming the other’s face for a reason, an answer. Sasuke sniffles as he heaves a deep breath, pressing his forehead into Kakashi’s with purpose. 

Tears run down his wet face as his breathing becomes unsteady. Sasuke’s hair is wet where it lay in between, and the hand on Kakashi’s shoulder tenses, fingers curling forcefully. 

“Sensei… I…”

Comes out a choked sob, the surprises are unending for Kakashi tonight. He’s watching Sasuke unfold to him, crumbling against him. Once the shock passes over, he takes the time to think of a response.

“I’ve got you, kid, I’ve got you.”

Sasuke shakes his head, forehead slipping against his, still wet. 

“I couldn’t—there was a chance….that fucking bastard took so much, figured I’d take more..”

One eye lifts to find Sasuke’s eyes still forcefully shut, he finds a sorrowful smirk where a grimace used to be. Processing Sasuke's words, his hands make another round about his torso.

“He’s not fucking dead, sensei….he should be fucking dead…..all he’s taken...he’ll be back for more…”

He sees the smirk leave, tearful eyes open and there’s red in those irises. The black prongs of his sharingan swirl once, twice, then fade into familiar depths of that piercing deep brown. A pale hand reaches for his other shoulder, Kakashi doesn’t break the eye contact Sasuke starts. Even now, wounded, crying and trembling, Sasuke’s eyes dare him to look away, a good description for the boy himself and the situation at hand, a challenge.

“You failed to kill a legendary sanin and lived? I think you should celebrate, Sasuke, not cry.”

Sasuke snorts at him, and it turns into a hiss as Kakashi finishes wrapping him up. Sasuke is still clutching onto him, the grip releases with a sigh and sniffle. Kakashi eyes him, works his good eye down the kid’s legs. 

“Those need to come off.”

He nods at the pants that stood in the way of the possible cuts and scrapes running up Sasuke’s legs. Leaning back on one hand, Sasuke works to remove them, the boy’s not able to tense his core without hurting himself, leaning back without his hand plastered to the floor will end in him square on his back. So one handed he struggles a moment, Kakashi steps in to help.

“Here, I’ve got you.”

His hands find grip at the edges of the kid’s pants, Sasuke eyes him all the while, the kid’s pale hands find the wooden flooring behind him. Once Kakashi has enough purchase, he glides them down the boy’s hips, on cue when Kakashi can’t get them down any further, Sasuke lifts his hips in assistance. 

Kakashi thought that bandaging a wound of topless Sasuke was vaguely sexual, pulling down Sasuke’s pants in the slow fashion that he was—well, he supposed it couldn’t get any more vaguely sexual than that.

His one eye makes the mistake of rising to meet Sasuke’s gaze, and he physically has to swallow and convince himself that there isn’t a faint pink tinge to the kid’s cheeks. 

Kakashi recomposes himself as he leaves Sasuke’s garment to the side, he looks at the more obvious wounds like the one bleeding directly under the man’s knee. It’s not imperative to wrap, it’s small, long and thin like a big paper cut. There’s a bruise that clings to the whole of his ankle, remnants of a cuff or a chain being a resident about the kid’s ankle too long. He eyes some bruising that concerns him more than the rest, it’s lighter in shade, circular and there are several dotted across the boy’s upper thighs. It looks all too familiar.

Then, as if to confirm his suspicions, there’s a bite mark, fresh, all red and angry, glaring up at him on the kid’s left thigh. 

“Fuck, kid…”

He curses through a deep sigh, it’s more for himself than it is in any conversational sense. Sasuke’s breath hitches, and his legs bend up and out of Kakashi’s reach and space. 

“Is that… what he took..?”

.

Sasuke is still sitting there on his floor, right where the kitchen turns into the living room in the open space. All bandaged up and practically naked, his pants strewn where Kakashi's left them. He’s got boxer-briefs on, those are soaked to the core like the rest of him, at best Sasuke is a wet mess half curled up on Kakashi’s floor after their ‘talk’. And Kakashi can’t think of doing anything about it. He’s standing in front of his stairwell, sloped against the nearest wall, trying his hardest to pull himself together. There’s an anger running over and through his bones that he can’t shake, a sorrow that pulls underneath it all. He can’t see through it to comfort his student, who’s probably reliving the worst of it because of a small conversation. 

He curses to himself and pushes off the wall, and comes back to crouching in front of Sasuke. He inches close as he thinks would be comfortable for the other, and opens his mouth to offer the kid a distraction because he can’t trust himself at the moment to offer anything of true comfort. 

“I don’t show this to, well, anybody if I’m honest. Since you’ve been so open with me for once, I figured I’d be just as open in return.”

Dark eyes widen as the mask comes down, Sasuke’s eyes roam his bare face in unhidden wonder. Sasuke leans forward just to look, the shock taking over across his face. The kid swallows, and Kakashi’s one eye follows the pale throat jump with motion. 

“What would Naruto think...of you showing me this..?”

Kakashi tilts his head to one side, what did Naruto have to do with any of this? Sasuke takes notice of Kakashi’s confusion, and parts his lips to speak, again.

“When we were younger, Naruto was jealous that you chose to train me. He thought I was your favorite. He just didn’t realize…”

There’s a pale finger pressing into the prominent mole underneath his lips, Kakashi waits for the other to finish while Sasuke’s finger shifts to outlining his jaw.

“He didn’t realize a legendary sanin had picked him.”

Sasuke’s eyes lift from Kakashi’s jaw to look his former teacher in the eye as he finishes, his hand withdraws at the end of his small tale too. 

“You sound jealous now, was I not good enough?”

Kakashi’s smirk is clear as day without the mask, he’s glad to see Sasuke turn his head downward in an attempt to hide a smile of his own. The kid wasn’t lost just yet.

“Shut up.”

“It’s good to have you back kid.”

Kakashi opens his arms for a hug, not advancing, the kid can tell him to fuck off if he doesn’t want a hug—Kakashi had put his bets on Sasuke doing something like that—

He doesn’t expect the cold of soaked black strands pressing into his neck and chin, the warmth of Sasuke’s bare arms reaching over his clothed shoulders. He was never the hugging type, Sasuke neither, but here they are, engrossed in each other’s arms. 

“I’m not back, yet, sensei.”

Kakashi’s hold doesn’t cease around Sasuke, he doesn’t take a pause in his thoughts:

“You had to go and ruin it, huh?”

Sasuke snorts over his shoulder, his breath is soft against his ear,

“I said yet, sensei, yet. Don’t tell me you're going deaf on me?”

The copy nin can only grumble, “I’m not that old, yet.” ‘Am I?’ is left off because Sasuke would chew his insecurities alive just for the hell of it.

“Wait—“ he pulls back from the embrace, “You’re actually planning on coming back?”

Kakashi hasn’t let go of the kid even though he’s put some distance between them. He supposed he’s still holding on because he’s shocked to hear that Sasuke showing up at his doorstep isn’t a one off. In reality, he’s holding on to prove to his one good eye that this is real, and that Sasuke isn’t going to disappear when he blinks. Pale hands are still clinging to his shoulders when his student nods. 

“I am. I intend to. When this is all over.”

‘This’ is more complicated than the simple word implies, and Kakashi’s eye goes dark just thinking about what ‘this’ entails. 

“You don’t have to do this alone, you know, Naruto would help you wipe the floor with Orochimaru—hell, I’d do it right now.”

He gently squeezes the kid’s shoulder unconsciously, the anger at the revelation of the depth of Orochimaru’s torture seeping through in his action for a moment.

“No—I can’t…I need to do this myself.”

Sasuke grips his former teacher’s shoulder as he levels his hard gaze against the determination across from him. Kakashi nods without breaking their eye contact, and without lifting his hand from the younger. 

“Right, well, I’ve got some sleep to get back to. Let’s get you set up in the spare room so that I may sleep.”

He’s patting a pale exposed shoulder before he’s shifting over to the kid’s side, hauling an arm that is far more muscular than he remembers, around his neck. 

..


	2. Day 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke and Kakashi just vibin and hangin out, i've got more plot intensive content coming up but for now, its just the bois chillin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m backkkk. I’m still alive I haven’t given up yet. Shouts out to all the people who commented last chapter, y’all are some real ones—I appreciate the support 
> 
>   
> also if you left kudos, like i love you guys too  
> Glad to know a few people out there enjoy my madness

Kakashi wakes to shuffling in what should be an empty kitchen. He’s slipping down the stairs before his mind can put together that the presence in his kitchen is Sasuke Uchiha and not an intruder. A wounded Sasuke dressed in what Kakashi had found rummaging through his closet in the middle of the night, a dark t-shirt that’s too big for the kid’s frame, so much so that the copy nin can barely see the white shorts underneath. Bandages line the Uchiha’s legs, Kakashi had went and strewn them anywhere he’d seen a lot of red which was everywhere, especially in the low light—really the white strips wound about the boy’s thighs were so that Kakashi wouldn’t have to look at the bite marks and bruises— _hickeys, Kakashi, call them what they are_ —there and spiral into another bout of anger, sorrow, and regret.

Looking at the dark haired teen? Kid? Adult? Kakashi quickly realizes he had over done it, maybe his eyes had betrayed him the other night because the sheer amount of white stripes has to be overkill. 

“Yo.” 

Kakashi greets, and revels in the nostalgic feeling he gets from the small hum that Sasuke gives in response. The kid has his back to him, fumbling around through cabinets he doesn’t own and brandishing pots that he also doesn’t own. Kakashi had never taken Sasuke for a cook, yet there he was cracking eggs into a pan before rolling them into a scramble. As Kakashi watches the kid sprinkle salt and pepper over what was becoming fried rice, he realizes the kid is slim in many ways but sturdy in others. The flick of a thin wrist comes off frail and soft, yet follow up the forearm and bicep where there is more stock, the Uchiha is suddenly sturdy. 

Kakashi wonders how long he’d been staring, wonders if Sasuke can feel his eye baring into the other’s back. Kakashi tells himself he’s staring because of the absurdity of their current situation. Missing nin Sasuke Uchiha who’d been gone for years, has magically materialized in Kakashi’s kitchen after Naruto’s numerous failed searches. 

_Yeah, it’s the oddity of their situation, not that the kid’s hips are surprisingly wide._

Suddenly there’s a bowl in front of him, gently placed on the counter of the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. It’s fried rice with small crumbles of eggs, spices and green onions he didn’t even know he had. 

“Where did you learn to cook?”

Kakashi asks, his eye hasn’t left the bowl in front of him as he adjusts himself into one of the high chairs set at the bar. 

“Mom used to teach me, quietly, when dad wasn’t looking.” 

Kakashi is distracted from unpacking that statement by the taste of the food on his tongue. 

“Holy shit, it’s good.”

His voice is muffled by his mouth full of breakfast. He takes the time to swallow before speaking again.

“Never took you for a cook.”

When Kakashi’s eye finds Sasuke’s face the kid is staring at him. Dark eyes widen slightly in awe, Kakashi has to remember that the kid isn’t used to just seeing his face. Sasuke recovers enough to resume eating and responds.

“Never took you for a foodie—do you show your face often? To like your friends? Family?”

Kakashi huffs a smile at the small dig at his appetite, the Sasuke he knew could do better.

“Not really. S’matter? You feel special?”

“Exceptionally so. Naruto would _kill_ to see your face. Sakura might, too.”

Sasuke moves to lean on the counter with his elbows, “So _Sensei_ , am I the favorite?”

Kakashi has to swallow intentionally to make sure he doesn’t choke. The kid has to be _playing_ with him, that or his ears need fixing.

“I never liked any of you, bunch of spoiled brats. Determined spoiled brats, but spoiled brats all the same.”

He expects a frown to form on the kid’s face, but the smug smirk from earlier only grows into a genuine smile. 

“You’re punching up there, though. It's a tough pick when you were all so troublesome.”

Kakashi takes his time chewing his next bit in between responses, he has to convince himself that this conversation isn’t flirtatious.

“You’ll be the first to know if I ever make up my mind.”

“I will?”

“You will.”

“That sounds like blatant favoritism, _Sensei_.”

Kakashi has a thought that passes through his wicked mind, it’s all impulse that tells him to act on it.

“ _Maybe_ , it is.”

Kakashi’s leaning in over the counter, his gaze darkens just a little as he dramatically takes his last bite. He’s keen on the way his lips move across the spoon and enjoys the way Sasuke’s eyes dip to watch the action. He rests his utensil in the bowl without a word or glance at Sasuke before disappearing up the stairs and into his room again. 

Out of the kid’s sight, Kakashi can only ask himself, _what did he just do_. 

..

The day is free from any more confusing moments like that of the morning, Kakashi has been left to his own devices and in turn he has left Sasuke to his. The kid was somewhere in the guest room, he hadn’t seen him in a couple of hours. Kakashi, on his days off, did little to nothing except read, eat and sleep. So he’d preoccupied himself with just that for the first half of his day, until he’d found himself bored. He changed up the scenery from his bedroom for that of his living room, taking a spot on his couch, and reopening Icha Icha. He failed to read any of the words on the pages, his focus more on the door to the guest bedroom. 

Sasuke has proven more talkative than one would expect, the kid was always full of little surprises like that, so he supposes he shouldn’t be shocked. But he is, maturity was easing its way through the kid and offering to the light more facets of Sasuke Uchiha—well, maybe they were always there and Sasuke was just now showing them to Kakashi.

This _new_ Sasuke was foreign to Kakashi and thus was more interesting than the same page of a book he’d been trying to read for half an hour. 

Kakashi had to think of a way to lure the kid out of where he was hiding, and how he’d start up a conversation. 

First, he taps his foot obnoxiously on the ground. Sasuke’s chakra spikes at first, acknowledging the noise, then it quiets back to the same calm.

Second, he purposely drops the book on the floor. It slaps against the wood harshly. Sasuke’s chakra hikes up again, and Kakashi almost thinks he’s started to annoy the kid out of his calm stupor. His shoulders slump when Sasuke’s chakra chills once more.

Third, he turns the tv on, some dumb drama is playing that he doesn’t care in the slightest for but he still takes the remote in hand and cranks the volume up too high. The door clicks open smoothly, and Sasuke paces through. He stops to just slowly blink at Kakashi, who in turn acts as casually as he can. He throws the kid a smile and the shake of a hand. 

“I’m really starting to believe you’re deaf.” 

Kakashi puts a hand over his chest and feigns hurt, “Why must you hurt me so?”

Sasuke huffs back at him, it’s just short of a laugh, as close to a laugh as he’s going to get out of the kid. To Kakashi’s surprise and quiet delight the kid wanders in and finds a seat in the chair to the left of him. Sasuke folds his legs over one another, his long legs somehow fit crossed like that on the chair’s cushion. 

After a minute of silence between them, well, except for the crying of some actress on the tv, Kakashi turns to find Sasuke’s eyes on him again. He’s staring with the intent of communicating something, but it’s lost on Kakashi as he just looks back at him. 

“ _Really_?”

Sasuke remarks finally, his shoulders slumped forward and there’s a look of genuine disbelief on his face. Kakashi’s eyebrows draw inward as he fails to piece together what Sasuke wanted.

“What?”

Kakashi doesn’t get an answer, Sasuke just rolls his eyes and snorts, “Unbelievable..” he remarks quietly to himself as he unfolds his legs to reach across the small coffee table for the remote. Kakashi’s eye finds the tv and watches the volume decrease, _oh_ , he thinks as it dawns on him. _He really hadn’t turned the tv down huh?_

“You actually are deaf. How did _you_ become a ninja?”

“Hey, I may be deaf but I’m still _your_ Sensei.”

Kakashi’s remark doesn’t have any heat to it, light hearted as the small laugh that comes after it. Sasuke is flipping through channels with a slight smile on his face when Kakashi’s eye finds his face again. 

“Wait, wait, stop—go back like two channels.”

Kakashi leans further into the couch as he watches the channels slip back. 

“A _dog show_? Are you kidding me?”  
Sasuke’s disbelief is on display in the sheer exasperation in his response.

“No, look at that German Shepard, she’s beautiful—“

“Kakashi—“

“That’s Sensei to you.”

Sasuke’s eyes squint at him and his dark eyebrows furrow, but there’s a smile forming on his lips. 

“ _Sensei_.” He says it forcefully, pronounced slow and dripping with the sass of that Sasuke, that Sasuke he knew. “We are not watching a dog show.”

“I don’t recall you having a choice in the matter.”

“I don’t _recall_ you having the remote.”

“Well, I don’t _recall_ you owning that remote.”

There’s a frown resting on the kid’s face as he thinks of a response. He looks like a pouting child, his bottom lip extended just a little as he contemplates another way to say ‘fuck you’.

“I don’t recall needing to _own_ it to do this,”

Sasuke presses his thumb into the button and the channel switches. It’s a strange man doing over the top comedy no longer the dog show Kakashi had been interested in. He has this smug look plastered on his face that is priceless, and it fuels the sudden urge to retaliate in Kakashi. 

“Is that how it is?”

Kakashi somewhere within himself knows that wrestling a remote away from Sasuke was not only childish but foolish too. He shouldn’t lurch forward off the couch suddenly in an attempt to surprise the other, he shouldn’t but he does. His mind catches up with his body when his hand finally reaches its intended destination around the remote.

He’s positioned over the kid, crouched over on his knees, Sasuke is lying on his back on the hardwood floor, stretched out as far as his body will go attempting to hold the small black remote out of Kakashi’s reach—sort of half turned on his side, his good side, the deep wound on the other side is dangerously stretched like the rest of him. Kakashi’s eye follows the curves of the kid underneath him as he draws back all slow, clearly eyeing the way the kid’s slim waist meets his hips. Mesmerized by the movement as Sasuke shifts to lay flat on his back, both his arms are still above his head, lax in forfeit, the remote free from his clutch. 

There’s a huff that Kakashi sees before he hears, watches the shift in the other’s chest. It’s a beat of silence when their eyes finally meet.

That same dark coal is looking at him, calm as usual but there’s a light in them, gentle flame that sings happiness. Kakashi catches himself before he can continue staring, remembering his quest. 

His fingers tap the buttons now in his control, the tv channels shift back to the dumb dog show that was no longer entertaining. He’s not even looking at the remote, his eyes haven’t left Sasuke’s, he’d changed the channel by memory, thumbs moving on their own. 

And _Christ he’s still looking_ , still watching the other’s eyes, swaying and bobbing with that of the dark pupils that are trained on his own. He starts to get concerned when in a small voice with a matching small smile interrupts the lapse in conversation.

“You win.”

Sasuke says finally, leaning up off the floor, curling up slowly and in the broken eye contact, Kakashi finds control over his body again—was it genjutsu? Of course not, he was no fool, he knew what had run through him. Hadn’t felt it often but felt it once—he offers a hand down toward Sasuke on instinct. 

Sasuke takes it and Kakashi surprises himself with the ease that the kid finds his feet. There’s weight pulling on his hand, Sasuke's weight, but it’s not as dense as he expects. Kakashi’s mind slips into worry about the kid’s eating habits and then it dips into uncharted territory of how easy it would be to carry the Uchiha—why Kakashi is happy about that information isn’t the point.

They’re chest to chest for a moment, Kakashi is eyeing Sasuke up and down again out of worry—he tells himself—

“You didn’t rip that wound open any further, did you?”

Sasuke shakes his head with a low hum, as he runs his hands over where the bandage lies underneath his shirt.

Then, it’s a sudden burst of movement, Sasuke’s reaching for the remote again, Kakashi’s reflexes save him, his hand jutting upward swiftly out of the kid’s reach. He’s still taller than his student, and in the moment he thanks the powers that be for that. 

Kakashi falters when the kid whines low and quietly at the back of his throat, the copy nin almost misses it—he’s sure it’s just a knee jerk reaction kind of thing, more out of instinct than it is a conscious response.

Kakashi feels a rush of pride at being the cause for such a noise, he can’t stop the smirk that bubbles to the surface. As Sasuke rises to standing on his toes, their chests press against each other and their faces inch closer as Sasuke reaches.

“Give it up.”

Kakashi knew he had made a mistake by the shift in the kid’s eyes. There’s a smirk he’d held on his face a moment prior, that same smug smile now rising on the kid’s lips. A determined glimmer shining bright in dark eyes as he leans in once more. 

Sasuke reaches for the space between Kakashi’s shoulder and neck, his hand finding a subtle grip that is soon realized. He presses into Kakashi’s shoulder when he bounds off the ground, uses his hand hooked over Kakashi’s shoulder to assist his ascent. His pale hand grips the end of the remote, as his legs wrap around Kakashi’s waist. The copy nin’s free arm instinctively slips around the kid’s back to hold him up while Sasuke presses further into Kakashi trying to dislodge the remote from Kakashi’s hand. 

Kakashi has a moment for a double take, flexing his hand at the small of the kid’s back to remind himself that it is Sasuke Uchiha wrapped around his torso. The hand trying to hold the remote from Sasuke, curls around Sasuke’s back with his arm when the kid’s weight dips a little. Sasuke’s expression sours as the remote is now out of reach, pressed into his back along with Kakashi’s other hand. Kakashi’s nose is an inch from Sasuke’s when the kid’s head tilts to face him, the kid’s huffing directly in his face,

“Come _on_ , you don’t play fair.”

“I don’t play fair? You call _this_ , fair?”

Kakashi nods his head at their predicament as Sasuke’s arms slip around the copy nin’s shoulders. Sasuke shrugs at him,

“I didn’t say I played fair, _Kakashi_ , I just expected you to.”

Kakashi rolls his eye at him, and it earns him a genuine chuckle from the Uchiha. 

“It’s sensei.”

The Uchiha laughs at him, Kakashi finds a laugh of his own rising. Sasuke untangles himself from Kakashi slowly, one leg at a time until he’s standing again. The kid slips back into the chair, while Kakashi saunters back over to the couch. 

..

“Why would he say that?”

Kakshi pauses and looks away from the reality show that he’d settled on watching after he’d tired of the dog show. The drama was intense and at least a little scripted. 

“What?”

“Why would he say that if he knows how she feels about her? It’s cruel.”

Sasuke voices his full thought, and Kakashi is just surprised that the kid was paying any attention. The kid had been entranced by a scroll he’d went and retrieved from the guest room after the reality show proved boring. 

“That’s rich coming from you.”

Sasuke raises his eyes from the scroll to Kakashi. The scroll shifts in the Uchiha’s palm, his thumb absently running over the edge. 

“How I treated Sakura is different.”

“Please enlighten me, how?”

Sasuke almost rolls his eyes at the sarcasm that falls from his former teacher. Almost.

“I was like fourteen, that guy is like twenty seven at the youngest.”

“Are you saying that you’d treat Sakura more gently now than you would have then?”

Kakashi snorts at the idea, Sasuke from back then and Sasuke now are about the same person, give or take a few traumas. If anything, Sasuke was more cruel now than then, the way he ignores and fights what he’d once called teammates and friends. 

“I didn’t say that—I’d be honest is what I’m saying. Blunt, but not with animosity I had before. I didn’t like people when I was younger.”

“No shit I thought you loved people, Sasuke.”

“ _Did you like me_?” Kakashi blurts out after a pause before he processes what that could imply. 

“Of course.”

Sasuke seems unfazed, eyes going back toroaming the scroll and not Kakashi. He almost breathes a sigh of relief, as Sasuke continues in a more innocent direction of conversation.

“You, Naruto and Sakura were my favorite people.”

“Really?” 

Kakashi gets up from where he’d slumped against the couch to really look at Sasuke. His disbelief is bleeding through his actions and face.

“Yes, you guys were my friends. You seem surprised?”

“I mean I knew you cared somewhere in that attitude of yours—it’s just you were always distant.”

It’s a pause that is almost audible from Sasuke, his face twists with some strong emotion that over takes him. Kakashi watches his eyes stare off from the scroll for a moment. The kid looks like a mix of sorrow and anger and regret. 

“I’m sorry.” 

The two words hang in the air, and suddenly Kakashi could sink into the floor with the weight of emotion that hits him in the small bout of silence.

“It’s okay, Sasuke, it’s okay.”

He finally says hoping to save the mood, rolling back on his side to watch the show. He’d doesn’t, unfortunately, they sit in silence until dinner, well, except for the over the top voices of the dumb reality show that Kakashi is regretting watching.

..

Cooking with someone was new, Kakashi found he enjoyed brushing shoulders with someone in his small kitchen. He really enjoyed not having to do all the work, Sasuke was there to handle some of the cutting, and most of the actual cooking. They’d fallen into a groove of passing things across the space, and weaving past each other with grace and ease. Kakashi hates to make more than it is but it feels right and good to not be alone in his kitchen making a lonely meal for one. 

It felt good to turn on the little radio he’d barely used for some music, it’s a mix of pop and rap on a station he doesn’t know the name to, but the beats are as upbeat as he feels so he leaves it on. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Sasuke’s head dip to the beat. 

He wonders if the kid’s heard it before, listened to it in a bar somewhere when the Uchiha was in between towns. It brought up the question of what music Sasuke listened to. The bouncy track softly playing in the background of his apartment doesn’t sound like anything Sasuke would subject himself to. Yet, there the kid is, bouncing with the sharp drums and snares of the quick tempo of the pop song. 

“If you cut it like that, you’ll tear up.”

Sasuke’s voice brings his thoughts to a halt, Kakashi’s eye finds the onion on the cutting board. He was really going to mindlessly cut an onion, he looked to see the green pepper minced and pushed to the side already, he can’t recall cutting the pepper. He pulls back, straightening from leaning over the counter top, and throws his head over his shoulder to glance at Sasuke. The kid’s wiping his hands clean with a dish towel with his hip pressed against the edge of the sink. There's a broccoli stem separate from all the green head bits on a cutting board behind him, and a small collection of spices to the right.

“Is that so?”

Kakashi asks and doesn’t expect an answer, knowing that Sasuke is still in a somber sort of mood. Still brooding over the past that Kakashi had unhelpfully reminded him of. Kakashi thinks that maybe he should apologize—then, there’s a pale hand over his, Kakashi was too distracted with his own thoughts to hear the kid’s approach.

“You have to line it up—don’t cut all the way through just yet.”

Sasuke’s hand guides Kakashi’s hand through cutting the onion, pressing and lifting against Kakashi’s wrist as he explains. There’s another hand that had  
taken to rest on his back between his shoulder blades, it’s a slight press of fingertips and a gentle warmth surging closer. Sasuke’s chin rests hooked on Kakashi’s shoulder, the weight of his head shifting with the opening and closing of his mouth,

“Then you turn it—slice all the way through this time.”

Kakashi’s not focused on the instructions or the proper way of cutting an onion, he’s preoccupied with the intrusion on his space that, if it had been anyone else, would have been an issue. But it’s the kid pressed against his side, and the kid’s hand over his and somehow he’s okay with it. He’s analyzing the simple scenario as more than it is, Sasuke is just trying to be helpful, and Kakashi is just receiving that help. Even in such plain language the scene feels suggestive of something deeper. 

“Your mom teach you this, too?”

Kakashi says, trying to distract himself from the sensations overwhelming him at the moment. He’s really putting in the effort to turn his brain off and just exist without thinking for a long while—it’d make the act of cutting an onion far more like cutting an onion and not as provocative Kakashi’s traitorous thoughts make it sound.

“No, an old friend taught me,”

Sasuke hums, his breath running dangerously close to Kakashi’s ear for the second time that day. 

Then the heat is gone and Kakashi can think again. Sasuke is moving away and he can hear the click of the stovetop. 

Kakashi looks to find the other half of the onion still intact, he’d set about cutting it after pushing the already minced pieces aside. He tried to remember what Sasuke had just shown him, but he’s failing horribly. He gives up halfway in and goes about cutting the thing how he pleases. He’s almost happy with the chopped onion when his eye starts hurting vaguely. He blinks furiously, it feels as if he needs to, and sullenly, he realizes there are tears forming up. He thinks maybe just maybe, he can hide his tears from Sasuke until his nose betrays him with a sniffle that’s loud on his ears. 

Sasuke turns away from the sizzling pan, Kakashi cutting board in hand offers the onions to be sautéed. The kid’s face was covered in concern initially, eyebrows pulling together slightly as his lips part. The expression morphs into a small smile, as he moves to take the cutting board from a tearing up Kakashi.

“You weren’t listening at all, were you?”

“I—I was listening.”  
Kakashi defends himself weakly, he’s smiling himself, knowing damn well he hadn’t been really listening to anything Sasuke had been saying about cutting onions properly.

“If you had been listening you wouldn’t be crying right now—you’re a terrible student.”  
Sasuke isn’t hiding his smile, Kakashi can hear it in the kid’s voice when Sasuke turns his attention back to the bubbling oil in the pan. 

“Like you can talk. Cutting onions is hard.”  
Kakashi goes to cross his arms, leaning back on the counter behind him and not minding the odd feeling in his eyes as the tears slow to a stop. He’s got his eyes closed, depending on his hearing to tell him where Sasuke was; he hears the click of the stovetop, the fire dies down, and Sasuke’s steps follow. There’s a rip of a paper towel from a roll, he shouldn’t be surprised by the press of the paper towel to his wet face. He opens his eye to stare at Sasuke dumbfounded; he’s not used to being doted on like this by anyone, let alone Sasuke Uchiha. 

Sasuke’s smile is still on his face when he shakes his head, “Unbelievable.” The kid sighs out quietly in the small silence.

“I’m not a cook, Sasuke.”  
Kakashi says only to keep up his weak defense of himself.

“I didn’t expect you to be, it’s just—“

Sasuke takes the small folded paper towel from Kakashi’s bare cheek, the kid’s gaze dips low and away from Kakashi.

“When I was younger, you were everything I’d wanted to be—the _copy nin_ , feared and powerful. I didn’t think there was anything you couldn’t do.”

Sasuke’s eyes are back on him again, the paper towel coming back to rest on his cheek, “it’s interesting to see you out of your element is all.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ll ever say to me.”

Kakashi laughs when Sasuke’s answer is a groan, “ _Shut up_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uhh I’m gonna ask the same thing again, yknow if you got any thoughts, some ideas some questions lemme know down below bro
> 
> I really kept this one short and simple some moments between Kakashi and Sasuke on their first day of being in the same place for 24 hours  
> I have some story plans baby, just you wait. I’ll be back next week with some reallll shit

**Author's Note:**

> If you could let me know what you think, it’d be reallll nice to know I’m not sending this into the void. 
> 
> also if this is worth continuing yknow I like writing and I’m gonna keep doing it but uhh it’s just a question if you wanna see it.


End file.
